Author: Luke Powers

Today we traveled from Lourdes to St. Jean Pied de Port, the starting point of the Camino.

Just like our travels from Paris, there was major complications on the transportation. There was not a single train coming to Lourdes for the next two days. The only possiblity was a 6 hour bus ride zigzagging across the south of France. While we were waiting in the bus stop another pilgrim saw our shells and stopped us. (All pilgrims walking the Camino attach some shell to their pack to show others that they are on their way to Santiago.) She was in a similar predicament trying to get to St. Jean Pied de Port.

The young women was from Texas and was accompanied by her mother. They wanted to take a taxi as it would save 5 hours from the bus ride. However, there was only one taxi driver willing to make the drive and for a hefty price. We found one other pilgrim, a Russian woman who has been living in North Italy for the past 13 years. Together, the five of us split the fare to St. Jean.

The small town is nestled well within the large foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains. The view from our room is incredibly beaitiful. Tomorrow morning we will have to start making our way up those mountains to begin the Camino.

– Luke

There is no pictures attached to this post, because the media space is already over capacity. We are currently working to fix this.

Today I was told that it would be impossible to get from Paris to Lourdes in under 24 hours. Not once or twice, but six times.

Michael and I left our hotel in Paris at 5:40AM hoping to catch the 6:30 train to Lourdes. When we arrived at the train station, there were massive crowds gathered around the ticket offices. The French workers are still on strike and have caused transportation to come to a stand still. The 5 trains headed to Lourdes were canceled until Sunday. When we finally made it up to the ticket booth, we were told it would be impossible to travel to Lourdes today. There was only one train leaving for the south of France for the entire day, and it was already over booked. The women behind the counter suggested that we just hop on that train and hope to talk to the conductor.

Not only was every seat taken, but every available space to stand was taken up by another body. We rode what seemed like to be a clown car for five hours to Toulouse. This beautiful town was much closer to Lourdes than Paris, yet it was still several hours away. We once again went to the ticket offices and explained our situation. Here we were also told that we would not be able to go anywhere else for the day. We talked to multiple workers as their English abilities varied greatly. Finally, we were able to workout a series of busses and trains to get from Toulouse to Lourdes before sun down.

We bought our tickets and ran the gauntlet of transportation. Around 9 pm we arrived in Lourdes to a beautiful sunset. We found a hostel very close to the main shrine and stumbled upon the nightly rosary procession. After praying in front of the grotto, we returned to our hostel for the night.

At the time I am writing this I have not been in Lourdes for more than 3 hours, but I can surely say it is one of the most beautiful cities I have every visited.

– Luke

We had set our alarm this morning to 6:30 AM, thinking we would walk to the 8:00 AM Mass at Notre Dame. When we finally woke at 9 I knew we hadn’t quite adjusted to the time change. Since we missed our planned Mass time at Notre Dame, we decided to head on to our next destination for the day, Sacré-Cœur. 

If you are unaware of French politics, just as I am, then you probably don’t know of the massive worker strikes throughout France. Much of the French workers have organized walk outs and marches to protest some of the new laws to be voted on. This has caused major delays in transportation within Paris. Since the buses and trains are unreliable, we have been walking to every destination. 

Coincidentally, when we arrived at the basilica, Mass was just about to begin. While we were praying before Mass, a nun came over to Michael and asked him, in French, if he would like to lector for Mass. I am fairly certain his response was along the lines of “No, sorry… English”. Although Michael didn’t lector, Mass was beautiful.

We grabbed some quick food for lunch and walked to the Louvre. The museum is so large it took us several minutes just to find the entrance. Unfortunately, we missed the last English speaking tour of the day by 5 minutes. On our own we took 2 hours wandering around one of the most impressive collections of history I have ever seen. Studying at Seton Hall University, we have the unique opportunity to head to New York City and visit the Metropolitan Museum. Without a doubt the Louvre is much larger and grander. This was a stop that I wished to visit, but when we finally entered I had no idea where to go or what to see. We took a break to rest our weary legs and plan the rest of our visit.

The last stop of the day was the Chapel of the Miraculous Medal. Here Saint Catherine Laboure is buried under the altar. We ended by praying vespers and asking the Blessed Mother to intercede for our future parishioners.

– Luke

Hopefully, this summer will be the last free time of our lives.

Although we are both from Wisconsin, Michael and I became friends when we entered the seminary and started our studies at the Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University. I didn’t know Michael prior to entering the seminary, but we quickly became friends. Both of us are studying to become Catholic priests in our home Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin. In our eight years of studying for the priesthood, four will be spent in college and four will be spent in major seminary where we will be stationed in parishes for the summers, leaving the summer of 2016 our last free summer.

Having worked as counselors at a catholic camp (Camp Gray) for the last two summers, we knew we wanted to spend this summer traveling abroad.  Coincidently, this summer is also World Youth Day, which is a large gathering of young Catholics across the world.  With careful planning and ample time we have decided to trek across Europe on a pilgrimage.

The main objectives are to visit Notre Dame in Paris, Lourdes, in south of France, walk the entire Camino de Santiago, rest our weary legs in Fatima, Portugal, and finally, fly to Poland to celebrate World Youth Day.

This blog will cover our travels and give you unique insights not only into our day to day travels but also our path of discernment to the priesthood.  We hope to keep you posted every other day; however, this will be dictated by the availability of Wi-Fi.  Michael and I will alternate posts so that you may get to know both of us better from our points of view.  Feel free to comment or add questions to posts, which we will answer when we can.

Please pray for us, and be assured that we will be praying for all of you.

-Luke